Saw a nice photo sequence recently at The Guardian on The demolition of the Market Estate which had me wondering: What is the space in the room, the space we’ve inhabited, become fully habituated to (possibly for a very long time), once the demolition crews arrive? And afterwards, how has that space changed?
Said an ex-resident:
It’s just overwhelming. Everything we’ve seen and done here comes to this end. It’s very moving.
That which permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like the universal space around us, fills everything completely from within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman –that thou are. (Shankara)
The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot. (Nisargadatta Maharaj)
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Shankara,
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
I live just down the hill from Mark West and for a while I’ve been attending weekly meetings at his apartment. (Mark had the good fortune to spend time with Nisargadatta in the 1970s.) Recently, Mark was quoting energetically from Psalm 23, about sitting in the presence of enemies. (How Mark quotes so much of the scriptures of various traditions from memory continues to baffle me!) Here’s the piece:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
“Why would I sit in the presence of my enemies?” asked Mark. Because that is what we must do, he suggests. Enemies are symbolic of thoughts here, and the Psalm is not saying we shouldn’t have them – rather that we should be able to be in their presence, and hence separate from them. How so? In Nisargadatta’s language, the work is required because we have lost the Natural State, we have the wrong relationship to thought.
In actuality we are not thought, any more than we are the body. So we sit at a table, prepared by the Lord, the Witness, pure Awareness; knowing that thoughts are the respected potential enemies of this Natural State. And in so doing we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is a beautiful piece of writing, a statement of pure nonduality (although usurped by a religious tradition that has lost its true meaning), a good reminder for me and possibly also for others.
To dwell in the house of the Lord forever will only be “returning to your own natural condition” (see previous post, Attempted Escapes from Fear).
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Mark West,
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
A beautiful quote from Nisargadatta appears today on Charlie Hayes’ blog, and I repeat the first part here, out of my sense of conviction as to its truth:
Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever present, ever active, until you realise yourself as one with it. It is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition.
Once you realise that all comes from within, that the world in which you live has not been projected onto you but by you, your fear comes to an end. Without this realisation you identify yourself with the externals, like the body, mind, society, nation, humanity, even God or the Absolute. But these are all escapes from fear. It is only when you fully accept your responsibility for the little world in which you live and watch the process of its creation, preservation and destruction, that you may be free from your imaginary bondage.
You can continue reading Charlie’s post here.
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Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Upon returning to our apartment after its recent renovation one of the first things we did was put valued books onto new bookshelves. One such book is I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Slipping the book from the shelf a couple of days ago, I opened it to this short statement: “Life has no ambition”, a beautiful reminder that all our hopes, dreams and ambitions are mere constructions of an assumed I-centre, a thinker, a one who fears. Life itself is unfolding without the merest touch of such notions.
There is gestating, flowering, growing, withering, shining, decaying. Without an overlay that would name a future state. Such a relief, we are making up all else.
More quotes from Nisargadatta, from around the web:
The whole manifestation of this world is an expression of the same Consciousness that you are. You should not love anything other than your true nature, Consciousness. Deep desires, deep expectations: How can that be love? Your body identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding yourself should be your only priority. Your body desires will lead you nowhere.
If you don’t understand the “I Am” how can you understand the rest?
To abide in consciousness is the true religion. The human brain creates religions.
How can words explain that from which words originate?
Without food there is death and the idea “I am” vanishes. Consciousness is beyond any idea.
You can only watch events happen. You can’t use Consciousness to do or undo anything.
Your body identity is like a very tight screw. Your idea of being an individual, is a screw. You must loosen it up. Let go of your personal identity and the screw will open as much as needed.
If you wish to use your intellect dwell on your nine months in the womb. What is in the womb is not different from what is happening now.
Anything that can show you what you are is actually pointing out what you are not.
Grasp the knowingness principle and move ahead in life. Like a swimmer caught in a vortex has to dive to the bottom of the river, then has to swim to the surface, outside of the vortex, and only then he is free.
We live like worms in hot sand, always needing help, but I am not a worm. I am the manifested and the unmanifested.
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Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
